


Five times that Sam didn't realize Jessica was a demigod and one more time he still didn't realize

by Gerbilfriend



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Supernatural
Genre: Athena questions her childrens' taste in men, Athena terrifies her children's significant others, Blame the Plot Bunnies, F/M, It never ends well, Stanford Era (Supernatural), Stanford Student Sam Winchester, The Author Regrets Everything, Timeline What Timeline, demigod!Jessica, limited supernatural knowledge, never play scrabble or do trivia with Athena's kids, when two people from two different pantheons fall in love and don't tell each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23176759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/pseuds/Gerbilfriend
Summary: What it says on the tin. Blame the plot bunnies for this. The second chapter is three visitors Sam didn't realize they had, up to and including the time a goddess tried to get Jess to break up with him. I didn't bother to write the visitor Sam knows shows up
Relationships: Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Comments: 24
Kudos: 72





	1. Five times that Sam didn't realize Jessica was a demigod and one more time he still didn't realize

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely inspired by https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10159651/1/A-Weekend-with-Relatives on fanfiction.net by Vitaliciouscreations

XXX(one)XXX

At first Jess had thought that Sam was a demigod like her, maybe a Roman one. He moved like he had seen fighting, looked like someone who had found out that monsters were real. More than that through, he never talked about his mother and didn’t sound close with the rest of his family. That had sounded like a demigod story to her. Missing mom, childhood that he didn’t want to talk about. Jess didn’t need to be a child of Athena to put the pieces together.

There was only one problem with her theory.

He hadn’t recognized any of the hints she had dropped.

That was when she had started to get worried, because what if no one had found him. What if he had been a demigod alone.

It was what had started her asking him to hang out. He had been a puzzle and she had needed to find out, wanted to understand.

The only problem was that he didn’t talk about his family or his past much. Jess had only found out as much as she had via awkward first year of college icebreakers. Anymore was a blank wall.

_He could be a normal mortal with a shitty backstory,_ Jess reminded herself. It was looking more and more likely. There was only one thing she could do: ask her siblings to send her a celestial bronze thumbtack. It was probably one of the more ridiculous things that she had ever done, but worked.

Jess wasn’t sure whether it was disappointment or relief when Sam didn’t react, it would have been nice to not be the only demigod at school.

Then again, she was glad that one of them was normal. A demigod’s fate was not something that she would wish on anyone else.

XXX (two)

Jess first kissed Sam after he tried to defend her from a creep at a bar. Tried because Jess didn’t need some mortal to protect her.

She was Jessica, daughter of Athena and she could protect herself. She wasn’t sure how to describe it through, but the look in Sam’s eyes when she flipped the creep over her shoulder made her grin.

There was a shift in their interactions after that. An energy, a spark. It was like in defending herself she had made it over some sort of emotional wall of Sam’s.

“Where’d you learn to fight like that?”, he asked her over a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and notes for the calculus test they had the next day.

“Just a summer camp I went to, it was one of those jack of all trade type places”.

“Was it nice?”.

Jess pictured camp Half-Blood, pictured days spent learning how to wield swords, knives, spears. Days spent learning trivia with her siblings. Nights spent by the fire, the ashes of shrouds burning in the wind. The ghosts that haunted her when she was there, the longing she felt when she stayed away. _It's complicated,_ she wanted to say. “Yeah. Did you go to summer camp when you were a kid?”. 

Sam changed the topic back to derivatives.

XXX(three)XXX

Jess really wished that she could explain why she found the essay she was reading so funny. 

It was a well written factual essay.

Of course it was. Her boyfriend, and she still got such a thrill from thinking that, was good at research.

It still didn’t change the fact that Sam was taking a class about Greco-Roman mythology and was writing an essay about Athena and the founding of Athens. 

It was just so factual, so historical.

_Athena’s my mom._ Jess wanted to say, _Athena’s my mom and one of my little siblings, for all Annabeth refused to let them baby her, is dating a son of Poseidon. I'mreading this story and picturing my mom or Percy’s dad being this petty and I know that they are because gods can be jerks but still._

It was always funny when she looked over myths with mortals, people had literally turned her family history into something to be analyzed. That was a reason that she hadn’t taken the class, for all that it would have been an easy A. Helping her boyfriend on the other hand, Jess felt no guilt in abusing her knowledge for that.

“It's good?”, Sam asked hopefully as Jess finished the last of her edits. 

“It's good”.

Kissing was a nice celebration, it also meant that Sam didn’t think to ask about why Jess knew so much Greek mythology.

XXX(four)XXX

The door opened and Jess felt her heart sink. She wasn’t done yet!

“Jess, I’m home”, Sam called. 

“In the bathroom”, she shouted, wincing as she tied the knot on her vastest stitch too tight. She eyed the gash on her leg, still slightly sticky with blood as she cut the thread.

One more stitch and she was done. She grabbed her canteen of nectar and poured it over the stitches, one last step in sterilization before she was wrapping the whole mess up.

She slipped out of the bathroom, giving her boyfriend a kiss, ignoring the way her stitches stretched as she leaned up. He had enough darkness in his past without her adding her own.

XXX(five)XXX

Sam came hurtling in the room as she screamed.

“Spider”, Jess was able to gasp out, staring at the insect that was crawling closer. Phantom bites ached on her arms and she knew that she was panicking, that it wasn’t that big a deal.

It didn’t help the instinctive _noperunrunrun,_ as she watched the spider creep up a wall.

“Jess?”, she could hear Sam, tentative, distant.

“Spider”.

She was a demigod. She fought the monsters which went bump in the night. She had faced down hellhounds and giants and all sorts of myths which wanted to kill her and thought that she would be a tasty snack.

It still didn’t change the fact that there was a spider.

A spider.

She hated spiders. She hated them so much. 

“It’s okay”, Sam whispered as he hugged her, “it's okay. The spiders gone now”.

Jess jumped down from her perch on the kitchen table. “Sorry”.

“Why”.

“I know it's a stupid fear”, Jess admitted as she turned her face, leaning into his chest and just savoring the warmth.

“I’m afraid of clowns”, Sam admitted. 

Somehow that made her feel a bit better.

XXX (Plus one) XXX

Jess didn’t know what was up with Brady, his movement, his voice was all wrong. Worse was that he was talking about Sam. Something about his mother and how he needed to go back into hunting. It was to much like what Dean had been saying to say for her to dismiss it.

_Demon?_ Those were judo-christan. Jess didn’t want to believe that those were real. _The Romans were real._

There was no good reason for them not to be real.

_I am not going to die here._ The thought hammered through her veins.

She had survived two apocalypses and finals season, she was not going to die to something that was not even in her pantheon. 

The only weapon she had on her was the celestial bronze thumb tack, her sword was in her backpack, where it was absolutely no use to her.

_Will celestial bronze even work?_ Demons were supposed to be weak to holy items, and celestial bronze was blessed by the gods.

It would have to be enough.

She let Brady herd her into their bedroom, wishing that she had a better plan. The problem was that she needed more information.

Information that she didn’t have.

_I’ll have to rely on surprise then._

The force shoved her up toward the ceiling and she rolled with it, feeling the plaster crack as she pushed. For a moment she stood upside down on the ceiling, _so glad we were too cheap to get to that place with high ceilings,_ as she drove the thumb tack into Brady’s skin, crashing to the ground and rolling with her momentum. 

Then she was running, there was no time to get her blade, not with an unknown enemy that could use telekinesis.

Glass shards cut at her skin and her ankle ached from her landing but it didn’t matter In moments she was at one of her outdoor caches, digging the sword up from the loose dirt just in time to slash at the demon.

Jess held her ground, if she was going down she was going to go down fighting.

“I don’t have time for this”, it snarled, turning around at some unknown sound.

Jess took that moment to run, a few minutes later she saw her apartment burst into flames.

The next day she saw her death in the newspaper, safe at camp Jupiter. Jess ached to call her boyfriend, to tell him that she was okay.

She couldn’t though, that demon had come for her because of Sam and before she threw herself into a fight she was going to understand what was going on and for that she needed time. She needed time because she had lied to Sam but Sam had lied to her.

And it was his lies that had put her in danger. She loved Sam, she did, but if she wanted to see him again she had to be prepared.


	2. Three visitors Sam never found out about (I don't need to write about the one he did)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this happened. I have thoughts on Jess so there might be more there but I haven't seen supernatural, as mentioned before, so I have no grasp of Sam or his plot.

XXX(one)XXX

_ Thank the Gods Sam is not here.  _

It was such a reversal from what she had been thinking only hours before when Sam had emailed saying that he was staying late for a study group that Jess almost wanted to laugh.

She didn't. Jess was just glad that Sam’s absence had led to her making a late night run to the convenience store, enabling her to interrupt when she saw the signs of a demigod in distress.

Sometimes it paid to bring your sword shopping.  _ It's not paranoia if they are out to get you after all. _

Jess hustled the girl inside, nearly sagging in relief when the door shut. “I’m Jess, daughter of Athena”, Jess offered, trying to make conversation as she grabbed her canten of nectar her backpack, headed to the bathroom to grab the first aid kitch and made a quick detour to grab a plastic tablecloth, something Sam always laughed at her for buying, and headed back to the girl.

“Claudia”, the girl stuttered as Jess helped her to sit down on the plastic, “legacy of Mercury”.

She was Roman then, that explained why she was in the area without a satyr during the school year.

“Headed to camp Jupiter?”.

“Yeah”.

Jess made up her mind, “want to go together?”.

“Is that okay?”.

“It's a Friday night and my boyfriends out with a study group, cramming for a big exam on Monday. I’m not leaving you to travel alone”.

“But-”. Jess could see the rebellion in the kids eyes. Too bad.

“You’ve gotten far enough. I can drive you the rest of the way”.

“What if a monster attacks?”.

“Then it's a good thing I have this”. The flinch Claudia had at the sight of Jess’s favorite sword showed her newness to demigod life. 

“Lets go kid, just give me a second to clean up”.

The bloody tablecloth was thrown away, the bottle of painkillers replaced. The couch cushions were a dark enough color that the small amount of blood wouldn’t show, but Jess turned them over just to be through.

She could clean them later.

“Your boyfriend doesn’t know you’re a demigod”.

It wasn’t a question. Jess still responded. “No, and I’d like to keep it that way”.

“Why?”.

“How old were you when you found out you were a legacy”.

“The day of my twelfth birthday, the wolves came the night after”.

“It's the same thing, he deserves to be normal”.  _ Among other things. _

“What if you get married?”.

It was such a kid question. “I’ll tell him before then. You ready to go?”.

“Yeah”.

Claudia was quiet as she got into the car, nervous, “What’s your boyfriend like?”, she asked about a mile from campus as they headed down the highway.

_ How do I describe him?  _ “He’s stubborn, clever, Sam works harder than anyone else I know. He traveled around a lot as a kid, I don’t think he ever spent that long in one place but if anyone could come out of all that with a full ride to Stanford it would be Sam Winchester”.  _ Gods I love him. _

“Do you think I’ll ever get a boyfriend?”.

_ Oh.  _ Now Jess understood what the girl was doing. “Look, I know it might feel a bit like your life is over now, and it's true that it will never be the same again. I don’t have to tell you that being a part of this world is hard”, Jess paused, trying to get her thoughts together, “but it's not impossible. If you want to fall in romantic love you can, if not I’m sure you’ll find a life that matters just as much”.

“Will I still get to go to college?”.

“I am. If you want to go to college you will”.

They kept driving. 

“Thank you”, Claudia called as she crossed the border to camp. Jess was tempted to follow, there would be no buried weapons at camp, no trying to explain that she didn’t want a cell phone. On the other hand, there would also be no Sam and she would have to take the DSTOMP, not to mention the limited majors at the university.

_ No,  _ Jess thought as she made sure there was no trace of Claudia to be found in their apartment,  _ this is good. _

It was much more than the terrified twelve year old girl half convinced she had been kidnaped by her gym coach had thought she would have.

XXX(two)XXX

“Annabeth, it's good to see you. Where’s Percy?”.

“Why does everyone ask me that?”.

“Maybe because you two seem to be joined at the hip half the time?”.

Jess grinned at the expression on her little sister’s face. Annabeth might be one of the seven and had known she was a demigod since she was seven but Jess was still a year older and therefore an older sister. 

“Sorry, sorry. Thanks for dropping by”.

“It's no problem, here’s the nectar and ambrosia you needed”.

“Thanks, I didn’t want to run out”.

“I was in the area”, Annabeth offered, shrugging off the thanks, “how are your classes going”.

“They’re good, you enrolled at New Rome, right?”.

“Yeah, I’m majoring in architecture”.

“To absolutely no one’s surprise. Do you like it?”.

“I do. Do you have a boyfriend?”.

“Yeah. He’s mortal”, Jess said, heading off the questions, “and has a late class, so he won’t be here”.

“He doesn’t know”.

“Not all of us have Percy Jacksons”.

“True”.

Jess couldn’t help it. “Can we spar?”.

“Here?”.

“I haven’t gotten to spar since I’ve gotten here, I mean, I’ve fought the odd monster when they come a calling but there’s no one to spar with”.

“You sure you want to fight me?”. Jess made sure not to wince at the competitive gleam in her sister’s eyes.

“It's that or wait ten minutes and get into a factual argument that will take the next year to resolve”. Sometimes when Jess thought it was a miracle that they ever got anything done in Athena’s cabin.

“Probably a good thing Chiron banned trivia night”.

Jess thought back to the only trivia night she had ever attended and winced. “Probably”.

There wasn’t that much of an empty space, it wasn’t like college students could afford that much space, but they made do, shoving the furniture to the side.

“Stop at first blood?”.

“No bruising, I don’t want to have to explain what happened to Sam”. He was the kind of guy who would notice if Jess ended with a black eye.

Space was limited, Jess’s arm ached from where she had bumped it against her kitchen table, and she lost as expected.

It was still good. 

They managed to get derailed into a debate over furniture placement and Annabeth had to jump out the bedroom window as they heard Sam start coming up the stairs.

_ Safe. _

XXX(three)XXX

“What are you doing here Mom?”. Jess felt like screaming, there was no good reason for Athena to be in her apartment. Goddesses showing up meant quests, even parents, besides, “shouldn’t you be talking to Annabeth if you need something?”.

“Jessica Moore”.

_ Oops. Bad sign, bad sign.  _ “Sorry Mom”, Jessica rushed to apologize, “I was simply shocked when you showed up and afraid that my boyfriend would see, he’s mortal and doesn’t know”.

“Sam Winchester?”.

“Yes”.

“He has been otherwise distracted, he will not come back when I am here”. Jess felt something inside of her relax, only to tense up at her mother's next words, “you should break up with him”. 

Jess took a deep breath. “No”.

“He is dangerous”.

“So am I. I’m your daughter after all. He is mortal, right”.

“Yes. Sam Wincherster is mortal”.

_ The thumbtack doesn’t lie.  _ Jess knew better than to say that outloud. “Then it's fine. Annabeth did not break up with Percy when you told him to”, Jess was so glad she had not had to be privy to those fights, “and I’m not breaking up with Sam. I love him”.

“Very well, do not go unarmed”.

“I will be fine Mom, I can look after myself”.

“A mother can worry about her children”.

“I know. Is there anything I can do for you?”.

“Would you tell me about your classes? Do you like them? I looked at the curricula, I still think you would have done better at New Rome”.

Jess felt frozen. She had been prepared for many things when she had walked in to see her mother, a conversation about her academics and future was not high on the list. She started to babble about her professors and her classmates and the projects that were coming. It was sort of nice, even if Jess had no idea why her mother decided to show up.

It was almost nice. Jess found herself half sad when her mother left.

_ Still, Sam, dangerous to me.  _ Jess had trouble believing that. It wasn’t true. 

The next night Sam’s brother showed up.

XXX(and the one they both knew about)XXX

Both Sam and Jess knew about the fourth non mortal visitor. He was totally unwelcome.


	3. I get kidnapped by my gym teacher (or how Jess got to Camp Half Blood)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is completely Percy Jackson, I do have a few other snippets that I might post but for anything longer I would need to actually watch supernatural. Is it worth it?

_ I hate gym,  _ Jess thought miserably,  _ I hate gym! _

It still didn’t change the fact that she was crammed into the front seat of some car, a lacrosse stick poking into her back as they drove and a sword balanced on her lap, uncomfortable sharp.

Jess couldn’t take it anymore. “What is going on”.

“You’re a demigod cupcake. Daughter of Athena it looks like”.

“Stop lying to me and let me go”.

“If I let you go, those monsters out there will eat you as a snack. Do you want that?".

“I want the world to make sense. Greek gods don’t make sense”.

“Well they’d better start making sense, now do you want me to stop the car?”.

Nothing made sense. Nothing had made sense since Jess had had to help clean up from the dodgeball tournament in detention, been cornered by one of the school bullies, who had then turned into some sort of giant, and started throwing burning cannon balls at her. 

Coach Hedge had then turned up, stabbed said giant with a sword, tossed said sword at her and told her to fight back next time because he preferred to use a baseball bat.

Then he had dragged her to the car.

And now they were driving. Somewhere.

And greek gods were apparently real.

“What are you?”.

“I’m a satyr cupcake, see the horns”.

Jess did. That was the problem, because if the horns were real and the monster had been real then there was a chance that this all was more than a fevered dream.

It meant that all those things, the time she had seen a snake-woman and a centaur and a gryphon, were not figments of her imagination.

“Is that why the spiders hate me?”.

“Now you’re getting it cupcake”.

Jess could grow to hate the word cupcake, she knew that for sure. “Spiders hate me because I’m a child of Athena and there are those myths about Archance, that was Athena turning her into a spider, right?”.

“Exactly”.

“The greek gods are real”. It didn’t make sense. Then again, the giant trying to roast her with a flaming dodgeball would never make sense.

“Didn’t we go over that already, did that giant bash you over the head? Athena’s kids are supposed to be smart”.

“No, he just threatened to eat me”.

“Would have too, without me and that sword. Take care of it, it's yours now”.

Jess stared at her former gym teacher. “I have no idea how to use a sword”.

“It's easy, the pointy part goes in the monster”.

_ Not helping!  _ “Can I call my mom? she should know”.

“Only if you want to die”.

“Why would I die from a phone call?”.

“Cell phones are like sending out a snack time signal, ‘here monsters, come have some munchies’”.

“Is there anything that's safe?”. Jess’s headache, burns itching along her arms and she didn’t have a plan.

“Camp Half-blood. It's where I’m taking you”.

“Where is it?”.

“New York”.

“That's days away by car. I need to tell my mom!”. This was not good. This was so not good. 

“That's why we are flying. It's a good thing that you are a child of Athena, if you were Poseidon's we’d be in trouble”.

“I’m twelve. I can’t fly without an adult, not to mention the sword you just gave me, metal detectors do exist and I still need to tell my mom somehow”. It was easier to focus on the logic. The facts. If she did that then it was okay.

“Don’t underestimate the mist”.

“The mist”.

“It changes what mortals see, why’d you think no one else came when that lastrogian attacked”.

“And it will help us get onboard a plane?”.

“You got a better idea cupcake?”.

Jess did not have a better idea. She hated it. The sword was still in her lap, leaf shaped blade with a channel she was pretty sure was for blood. It was about two feet long, Jess thought so at least. It wasn’t like she was an expert on swords or anything like that. She had never even held a sword before today and-

_ Just keep going, you can break down when you are safe.  _

“I still need to tell my mom”.

“You are like a hellhound with a bone, aren’t you cupcake. I left your mom a note”.

“You did?”.

“I did. You’re Athena’s kid, she probably already knew this would happen”.

“What do you mean?”.

“Athena drops her brats off as babies on doorsteps”.

“Her?”.

“Yeah, her?”.

“How can two woman make a baby?”.

“They can when one of them's a goddess, ask your siblings cupcake”.

“My siblings?”.

“You thought you were Athena’s only child?”

“No, yes”, Jess sputtered out. 

“Just wait until your orientation, Chiron will sort you out, he likes doing that”.

“Ugh”, Coach Hedge exclaimed, slamming his hands on the wheel, causing the car to jolt and the sword to press painfully into her leg, reminding her once again that she had a sword in her lap, “Clarise was so much less trouble than you”.

Jess was tempted to ask who Clarise was but had the feeling that asking any more questions would just get a similar reaction.

_ I want to go home. I want this all to be a lie.  _

Unfortunately too much of it made sense.

Two hours passed both fast and slow when you were trying not to panic. Also, cars full of gym equipment with bad AC started to smell pretty bad after the first twenty minutes.

Even with that Jess wasn’t quite sure she wanted to get out of the car.

The sun had started setting, had learned a bunch of new swears and insults for other cars, by the time they made it to San Francisco.

_ I never was afraid of the dark before,  _ Jess reminded herself. Now, for all her relief that she was out of the Coach’s sweaty car, she couldn’t help but flinch as they walked into the airport.

Jess knew that she didn’t look like she belonged there in her slightly charred clothes.

There was a duffle on her back but Jess was pretty sure it just contained sports equipment, well, that and the sword she had no idea how she was going to get past security.

_ We’re gonna get caught, we’re gonna get caught.  _ She didn’t even know where Coach Hedge got his tickets! Somehow they made it past, Jess couldn’t stop her sigh of relief.

“You doubted me cupcake?”.

“No, never”. Jess made sure to hold her most convincing expression.  _ He bought it. _

They made it onto the plane somehow. Jess was still impressed, and slightly worried, that they had made it onto a plane.

Jess leaned out of her seat, trying to see behind her through the isle.  _ He can get us on a plane but he can’t get us good seats. _

Somehow Jess was not surprised. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. She wanted to laugh, wanted to cry. She wanted to scream.

She bit her lip instead. 

_ I should sleep. _

She couldn’t. Everything was just so loud and she couldn’t focus, when she looked down there was a string on the back of her hand, being woven into a longer and longer length.

When she ran out she unravel the whole thing and started over again.

_ Focus on this. _

The bag slid under her feet. 

Jess felt the sword as it clanged against her sneakers, which still smelled slightly of burned rubber and she could see the nose’s people on both sides of her wrinkled at the smell, had noticed nothing.

_ I have a sword on a plane. _

Jess remembered the last time she had rode on a plane. Her mother, and Jess was going to think slightly because she could not afford to break down on a plane, had worried endlessly about getting caught in security and Jess had been pretty sure that she had seen a bird cleaning the toilets.

_ Maybe I did.  _ Jess made a note to ask Coach Hedge when she had the chance.

Time ticked by.

They were almost to New York.

Then something happened and the plane started to shake. 

“Please remain calm, we will be able to land. Please remain calm and buckled in”.

There was more going on. There was more going on and Jess didn’t know. She could hear five different groups screaming and at least one person was praying.

Jess didn’t know why but she reached for her duffled, pulling it onto her lap and grabbing her sword, grasping it like a talsim.

Jess tried to breath.  _ The Pilot said we would be fine.  _

The birds out the window had bronze beaks. Bronze beaks the color of her sword.

_ All the plane has to do is land.  _

Somehow it did, charging down the ramp. Jess hissed in pain as she nicked her finger on the blade. 

_ Note to self: holding sharp things on plane bad. _

Some child of the goddess of wisdom she was turning out to be. A random thought hit her, she remembered reading in a book that bleeding on a sword meant that you claimed it.

_ I guess that makes you mine.  _ Jess wasn’t sure what to think about it. The stamped nearly shovered her under a chair as the person sitting to her left pushed her down in his hurry to get off the plane.

Jess hesitated. On one hand she wanted off the plane.

On the other hand, those birds were bad news.

“Glad you decided to wait for me cupcake”.

“You’re welcome. You know what those birds are?”.

“Flesh-eaters, we have no choice but to fight”.

He sounded way too excited. “What's the plan?”.

“You take sword, I take my club, we smash. Sounds good?”.

Jess tried to breathe. It was like the world was going a mile a minute. “How about, I take sword, you take club and we try and get into one of those cars, you can drive that, right?”.

“Sounds good”.

It did not sound good. It was awful, everything was awful. Everything hurt as Jess waved her sword, trying to keep the birds away as they dashed.

From the pain she was feeling it didn’t quite seem like it was working, somehow she manged to pull herself into the car.

The world was going fuzzy. Everything just hurt so much.

“Cupcake, cupcake, Je-”.

When Jess woke up she was in a bed, sore and achy, but it was nothing like the blinding, hot blooding pain that had been splitting her apart before.

“You made it Jess, now I’m gonna let him take over the explanations”.

Jess craned her head in the direction, seeing a grey eyed, blond haired boy. He looked like her.  _ A brother? _

“I’m your brother Malcom, welcome to Camp Half-Blood”.

  
  



	4. What to do when one of your friends has been arrested for murder, talk about another murder (Or Becky and Sam, after Jess)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking of Sam and Jess's shenanigans at college and scribbled this out. It takes place during Skin and was me trying to see if I had a Dean-voice at all

“Is that-”. Dean followed Sam’s line of sight.

_ Shit.  _

It was a photo of Jess.

“Yeah. That was the week we moved in, first year before you stole her”.

“I stole her?”. 

_ What does that- _

“Yeah. She was my roommate before she moved in with you, therefore she was mine first and I let her move in with you. You better have appreciated her”.

Dean watched, careful to see if he needed to intervene. They were here to find the shifter, not talk about Sam’s murdered girlfriend.

Sam was quiet. “I hope I did”.

“Yeah. Honestly though, if anyone was going to have the secret supernatural past I would have thought it would have been Jess”.

“You would have thought Jess?”.  _ Who’d have thought the pretty blond over Sam?  _ Dean remembered the time he had seen Jessica, she hadn’t looked like much.

“Yeah, we all thought you had an abusive family or something”, Becky said, relaxed like she hadn’t just insinuated that Dean would let someone hurt his little brother like that, “Jess on the other hand, well, remember the building in freshmans comp. We were four floors up”.

“I forgot that”.

“The professor’s face, it looked like his eyes were gonna fall out”. Dean hoped not, he had seen what people looked like when their eyes fell out. It wasn’t pretty.

“Yeah, ‘no climbing the buildings’ rule was all her, she was so proud of that one”.

“Remember”, Becky started and then she and Sam both chorused, “it's not about if you win or lose, it's about how many rules you add to the rule book”.

They both lost it. 

“Jess did care about winning and losing through”, Sam pointed out in between laughs.

“You did too, that whole first semester, remember”.

“Yeah”, Sam reflected, eyes distant in a way Dean did not like, “I do”.

“What happened?”. 

They both turned and looked at him, “what, I was just wondering”.

Becky grinned, bittersweet. “What was worse, the Scrabble Tournament, the lock picking incident, any trivia night before you guys created a truce had teamed up against the rest of us, or the bar banning”.

“The bar banning was all Jess’s fault”.

“You egged her on”.

“So did you!”.

They both lost it again. 

“Arachne is the spider, Athena is the goddess of wisdom. The only thing they have in common is the first letter!”.

“She was so upset! She just got up there and somehow dispanced that guy running the trivia night and took it over. We were sitting next to each other, remember?”.

“I remember getting thrown out after”.

“Like you two cared about that. You guys would go to bars and then study while the rest of us made fools of ourselves”.

Sam sighed his happy sigh. “We had so much blackmail on the rest of you guys. So much”.

“Yeah, what happened to that anyways?”.

Suddenly the mood plummeted. 

“I think it burned up”.

“Oh”.

They got back to working on the case after that.

“Did Jess know?”, Becky asked, quiet.

“No, I never told her”.

“Was it-”.

“It was my fault”, and Dean wanted to butt into the conversation, to shut it down. He didn't. Sam was finally talking to someone, even if it wasn’t him. “She was killed by the thing that killed my mother”.

“Is that why you went back?”.

“Yeah”.

“What do you miss about her?”.

“What do you mean?”.

“Like, the small things. I miss her laugh and the way she would memorize random trivia for when we had a bad day, or if she just wanted to gross us out”.

“I miss our debates”.

“I miss her friendship bracelets. She was working on a new one for me. I miss the way she refused to go anywhere without her backpack, ‘I want to be able to do my work’, like girl, we are going on a hike, not a study trip”.

“I think we made that trip both. She used to swear in ancient greek”.

“We spent a whole day trying to figure out what she called her professor once-”.

“-and then laughed at our expressions when she found us with all the dictionaries”.

Dean was pretty sure that they had forgotten he was there, which was, you know, kind of insulting. On the other hand Sam never talked about college.

“I still think the lock picking incident was your fault”.

“My fault, I was the one who got the door open”.

“Yeah, but it was Jess’s room”.

“She could have just left the door open, she didn’t need to shut it and do it again”.

“You didn’t need to take offense when she beat your time and demand to go again”.

“She could have stopped it”.

“So could you, I was the one stuck outside the door for an hour in a towel because I couldn’t get any peace due to you guys breaking into our room”.

“She had the key the whole time as well. That was Jess, she always had a plan”.

“Or twenty, like when I really needed extra credit and my professor was being an ass. I still can’t believe she got away with that. He got fired you know, a week after the fire. She was totally right about that report. Jess always watched our backs”.

“Yeah”. There was that tone again. The Jess-dieing-is-my-fault-and-I-deserve-punishment tone. 

“Right, well if we’ve finished with the sorority moment, then I do believe we have a shifter to catch. It's almost time for us to head out Sam”.

Sam jolted up, ready to go. 

“Do you have any pictures?”, Becky asked quickly.

“What?”.

“Pictures”.

“No, those all burned too”.

“Before you go, after we get all this sorted out, I’ll get you some pictures and send you the videos I have saved”.

“You don’t have too-”.

“I want to, I have copies, don’t worry”.

Dean really was not sure if this was a good idea or not. He watched the micro expressions play across his brother’s face, loss, anger, sadness before settling on grateful. “Okay then. Thanks”.

  
  



	5. Five demigods (and one goddess) that Sam had met without knowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Messing around with Sam-voice and world building. Muhahahaha.
> 
> I have plans (and am now on season two)

XXX(one)XXX

Sam waited in the dumpy old diner, working his way through the last of the problems. It took him a little while longer than he expected but that's okay, he has time. 

It's one of those weird places, the type that tries to be homey and fake southern even though they are somewhere in who-knows-where, and the door opens with a gust of cold air.

Sam kind of hates it,

Three kids show up and Sam’s not quite sure why he’s watching them, maybe the fact that there isn’t an adult trailing behind them, either way, they look kind of a mess.

“-do we have? Can we still make it?”, one of them is saying, part of a harsh whispered conference. They go up and order before sitting back down, still whispering.

It sounds like they’re arguing on how to take a trip somewhere and their parents still haven't shown up.

One of them noticed him staring, the girl looked up and glared, protective. Sam looked back down quickly, if he started a fight then it would be bad for Dean.

He didn’t want to cause anymore trouble.

The trio was gone in record time, not even crumbs left behind. Still, Sam finds himself staring out after them, wondering what was happening.

What they were hoping to get to on time.

_ They were probably just late for a party,  _ Sam told himself. Most people were normal after all.

XXX(Two)XXX

“You be good for Caleb, alright”.

“Yes Sir”, Sam was saying, biting back the fear. He was thirteen, he didn’t need his dad and Dean with him all the time.

“Good, we should be back in a week”. Mentally, Sam made that two weeks, he knew how these things went.

He hated watching Dean and his Dad drive away. He hated it.

“Are you ready to go inside?”.

“Okay”.

Caleb’s phone started to ring. “What?”.

There was indistinct chatter on the other end.

“Okay, look”.

More chatter. Sam really wanted to know what was being said.

Caleb sighed. “Alright, drop him off. Let him know he is going to have company. I’m looking after another hunter’s kid as well. They should get along, they’re the same age”.

Sam wasn’t sure that was a reason someone else would get along with him, the kids in his class would have disagreed.

That was how he ended up breaking into Caleb’s weapon closet, he still wasn’t sure how Cecil managed to pick the lock to get in, and judging the weapons.

“What's this one made off?”. It looked like bronze, but something seemed off.

Cecil grabbed it quickly, “I was wondering where it went”.

“That's yours?”

“Yup. I knew he had stolen it”.

“What do you kill with it?”.

“Monsters”, Cecil said, deadpan.

“What type?”.

Cecil paused for a second, thinking. “Rakshaws”.

“Cool”. Sam made a note to check on that later. 

Suddenly Cecil froze. “Caleb’s coming. Let's move”.

Somehow they get away with it. They also get away with switching half of Caleb’s guns for toy guns, “don’t worry, these aren’t the ones he hunts with, it will be fine”, Sam spent half the day on edge but when the toy gun went pop Caleb had just sighed. 

It had gotten more chaotic from there.

They had also super glued his hand to his cup, Caleb had just gotten solvent, installed an air horn as a wall protector, Caleb has just sighed, painted his soap with clear nail polish, created a fake plague of rats, and finally, another air horn under Caleb's chair.

He had been wearing headphones that time. Obviously he had learned from the first air horn prank.

Sam tried to imagine what his Dad would have done during Cecil's reign of terror. He promptly stopped thinking about it.

Sam had also found out that Cecil was only visiting for a few weeks because his mother had gotten a hunt and hadn’t wanted to take him either, “but it wasn’t worth going to New York for just a week so I’m here instead”, Cecil had said easily, with no explanation of why and that his father wasn’t in the picture. “He never really was. But I have Uncle Caleb and Mom so what more do I need?”.

It was nice. Sam had been correct, it was two weeks before his family had come back, plus fifteen stitches in his Dad’s side.

But staying with Caleb and Cecil had been nice. It was fun being with another kid who knew about the monsters in the dark.

“Do you want to exchange phone numbers?”, Sam asked as he cleaned up.

Cecil almost seemed to freeze. “I don’t have a phone”.

“Oh”.

“Hey, I’ll ask Caleb to let my mom know if your dad ever leaves you with him again. Maybe we can do this again?”.

“I hope so”.

It had been nice to have a friend like him.

XXX(three)XXX

Sam’s the school Freak again, he’s fourteen, been to more than four schools in four years, he’s the freak, the exhibit, the new kid, the nerd if he stays somewhere long enough.

He’s used to it.

Sometimes though, he gets to make a friend. Those are always the best places. Places where he finds someone to click with. Jake is quick and clever and really good with building. He is a year younger than Sam but the teacher lets him come in anyways, laughing and saying the class is more to his speed.

Sam liked working with him in shop class a lot.

It's nice.

He worried though, because one day Jake showed up favoring his right arm, he even let Sam work the lathe! Jake never did that.

Jake could kind of be a control freak when it comes to metal work. Just a bit.

After that Sam watched Jake more closely. It was not the only time that Jake had unexplained cuts and bruises. Sam hated it.

For the first time he understands why teachers keep asking him questions. He tries but Jake always brushes him off.

_ It probably wasn’t a broken arm anyways.  _ Jake had stopped holding it funny after a few days, Sam knew from personal experience that broken bones took much longer than that to heal.

In the end he didn’t have a chance to press Jake, between one day and the next they were moving on, not a phone number behind.

XXX(four)XXX

There’s a boy in the graveyard, Sam doesn’t remember the name of this one he ends up visiting so many of these, talking to a ghost.

Sam does the natural thing. He shouted a warning and ran in. The boy lept off the gravestone and seemed to vanish into shadows, the spirit dispersing into greenish mist.

Sam looked, but he couldn’t find anything but an old happy meal bag, fries soaked in diet coke.

He tells his dad, who says that he will look into it, but they are moving on again.

XXX(five)XXX

He meets Jess, really meets Jess, on the first day of class, she answers five more of the professors questions than him.

The next day he beats her by two.

_ It's on. _

Sam has to be good here, he has to prove that he can do it. Otherwise, otherwise what was the point of everything?

_ Was it really worth it? _

Sam kept pushing. 

A month in the professor assigns them together on a group project, telling them to “work together or else” and that “they were tired of you two’s silly competition disrupting their class”. 

They did, and got top grade on the project. It's then that Sam starts to really think he could do this college thing.

It's more than just classes through, it's going to bars where they just end up studying and laughing at friends. 

It's that Jess cared about her classes the same way that he did. It's the first time he’s ever had that.

It's better when they work together. For one, they kick ass at trivia nights.  _ Maybe we should have done that rather than hustle pool,  _ Sam found himself wondering after one particularly profitable trivia night before pushing it away as fanciful.

He’s done with that life after all.

He is. 

XXX(plus the goddess)XXX

Old instincts prickle at the woman, something about her is not right in the way that makes him wish for someone at his back, even if he won’t let himself think about who. 

For one, Sam isn’t sure when she walked up to him.

For another, he is pretty sure her glare is making all his hair stand on end.

“I do not understand what my daughter sees in you”, said and just as she appeared she was gone.

Not a single explanation.

  
  



	6. The one's you don't know very well (or Sam and his quest for Normality)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun AU idea. Not sure if everyone in IC but its late and my brain shut off about an hour ago. This was sorta me messing around with the Sam/Jess dynamic and seeing what came out. Let me know what you think!

It started on a whim.

Well, actually it starts when Jess leaves a necklace on the table when she goes to class, the necklace she never went anywhere without, and Sam picks it up. It's a simple necklace, leather cord and eight clay beads, each looking to be handmade.

One of them has what Sam thinks is a centaur in a prom dress. They all looked sort of greek? Like there was a trident on another and greek letters on a third, surrounding what looks like some tall building.

Maybe what actually started it was that Sam is bored and still has the ancient greek dictionary from when he was trying to figure out what his girlfriend was calling her professor,  _ still not sure if I regret that or not. _

Either way he started translating.

They were names: Charles Beckendorf is the first one he got. Selina Beauregard was the next one. Luke Castellan a third and Micheal Yew a fourth.

Sam opens up his computer, unsure of what he is doing until he is already typing in the names.

Charles Beckendorf had been reported missing, his remains never found. Selina Beauregard was the same.

Luke was reported missing by his mother when he was nine. He had been a runway. There was nothing on him past the age of twelve.

Micheal Yew had been reported missing, his remains found washed up on the beach. He had been a runway as well, but there had been a tearful coming home article for him when he was thirteen.

He had just been reported dead the same summer as Selina and Charles. No reason why. 

Sam kept checking. Every single name carefully etched on the bead was the name of a dead or missing person.

Sam swallowed his bile and just sat, staring at the missing reports. That was the other funny thing: the ones that had gone missing as young kids, under the age of ten or so had the whole missing person shebang but then most of them had showed up again before vanishing in their teens, brushed under the rug.

On the other hand.The ones who had gone missing during the summer, that one large cluster, didn’t. The paper work had been filled, they had been marked dead.

That had been it.

Sam wasn’t sure how long he sat there, staring at the dead kid’s names on his girlfriend’s necklace, trying to figure out why.

What did Jess have to do with them? Were they friends? Jess had mentioned this necklace was from summer camp, had something happened that year? It had to be a memorial, Sam couldn’t, wouldn’t, let himself think of any other reason.

They still played in the back of his head.

Distantly he knew that he was supposed to be in class.

It didn’t matter. He needed to talk to Jess.

The door creaked open, “Sam are you okay?, Zach mentioned you weren’t in class and”, her eyes went down to the table, “is that my necklace?”.

“Yeah, you left it out”.

Jess scooped it up, saying, “Thank the gods, I was so scared that I had lost it”, as she slid it over her head.

“Jess”.

“Sam? Is something wrong?”.

“It's just”, there was nothing for it, he needed to get it out, “why is every name on that necklace the name of a dead or missing kid?”.

“You checked”, Jess asked, voice quiet as her face crumpled, the shadows he sometimes saw in full force. 

“I did. Why Jess, why?”.

Her face was clouded as she sat down. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you”.

Sam wanted to laugh. He highly doubted that. “Prove it”.

“What?”.

“I said prove it. Tell me!”.

“No. You’ll think I’m crazy”.

“No I won’t”.

“Yes you will”.

“Please Jess, tell me or I’ll have to go to the police”, even saying that left a bad taste in Sam’s mouth. It would still be better than what would happen if he told his family. If they would listen to him that was.

“You’re gonna think I’m crazy”.

“Try me”. Sam just needed a reason, a good reason, why Jess wore the names of dead children.

She slumped down into her chair and Sam ached to comfort her. This wasn’t the time though. 

“When I was twelve years old I was kidnapped by my gym teacher-”.

”What?”. 

“Don’t interrupt, I think the best way is to tell it as a story, but Sam, you asked. I could stop now, just forget about the beads, it's safer that way”.

“No, I want to know”. He could do this. “Please keep going”.

“Anyways, I was staying after class, got detention for correcting a teacher”, and another time Sam would have been laughing because that was so Jess, “cleaning up from a dodgeball tournament and the class bully comes up to me, and like, I’m all ready for him to start insulting me or something for being in detention when he wasn’t. It didn’t happen like that”. Jess paused, uncertain. 

“What happened?”, he prompted.

“He shifted”, Jess said, pausing as she spoke and Sam felt a shiver go up his back, “he was big and he just got bigger. Then he picked up one of the dodgeballs and threw it at me. I dodged but it burned me because somehow it was on fire. It made a crater in the floor. Joe Bob, that was his name I know, then told me that I should have let myself be hit, because then my death would be quick. I had no idea what was going on and was just trying to avoid being burned alive when my gym teacher shows up, stabs the monster with a glowing bronze sword and tells me to do it next time”.

Jess looked up, her grey eyes steady and stormy, “see told you it's unbelievable”.

The problem was that it wasn’t. The flaming cannonballs were hard to place, but Sam had read about man eating giants before. “I believe you”.

“Do you really? Because I know I sound crazy”.

“No, I do”, Sam paused, unsure, eighteen years of reminders never to tell trapping words in his throat.  _ Jess already knows.  _ “My family are Hunters”.

Curiosity flashed through Jess’s eyes. “Hunters? Can you see through the Mist? You’re not a demigod though, I checked? Do you work with the Hunters of Artemis somehow even though you’re male? How do you-”.

Sam latched onto one word out of the mess “Demigod? God-”.

“Not God, who knows if he/they/she/it exists, it's a huge argument among my siblings, one I stay out of. I mean gods, plural. The greek gods are real”.

“You’re pagen?”.

“I’m a daughter of Athena”.

“Didn’t you say she was a virgin goddess at trivia night after someone guessed she was Ares’s lover?”. And that wasn’t getting into the fact that Sam had met Rose Moore.

Jess did something that was almost an eye roll but somehow even more sarcastic. “She is, you know how she was born right, fully formed out of Zeus’s head”.

“You were born the same way?”.

“Yes”.

Sam couldn’t help it. “Why do you have a belly button?”.

“I just do”, then all of Jess’s attention was on him, laser focused, “ and what do you mean, Hunter?”.

It was his turn in the hot seat. “Ghosts, monsters, all those things that go bump in the night are real. My dad and brother hunt them. I used too”.

“How do you guys see through the Mist?”.

It was the second time Jess had said Mist with a capital letter. “What's the mist?”.

“Give me a sec”. Jess bent down, reaching the bag that she had abandoned before and unzipping a pocket.

She pulled out a baseball bat. An actual, baseball bat. From her backpack. “How did that fit in there?”.

“What do you see?”.

“It's a baseball bat”. At least, it was. But Jess was staring at him with disappointment in her eyes and the longer he looked at it, really looked at it, the less it looked like a baseball bat.

Suddenly it looked like a sword. 

Sam rubbed his eyes, then he reached out his hand to touch the blade.

His hand went straight through. He wiggled his fingers.

Nothing.

He ran his hand along the blade.

Nothing. 

It just felt like air. 

Jess querched her lips into something that Sam thought was supposed to be a smile. “Mortals can’t be harmed by Celestial Bronze. I could stab you straight through the heart with this and nothing would happen. If you stabbed me though”, Jess pressed her finger against the edge and a red line formed on her finger. Sam scrambled for a tissue.

“Thanks”. Jess said as she dabbed at her hand.

Suddenly it was just a baseball bat again. If it wasn’t for the blood Sam would have been questioning if he really saw the sword or not.

They were both sitting, awkward. Sam still needed to know. “So who were the kids? The ones on your necklace”.

Jess’s eyes grew distant as she stared down at that bead. “They were campers, friends. Two years ago the titan Kronus tried to rise and destroy civilization. We stopped them but, well, there was no perfect plan. A lot of good people died”.

“I’m sorry”. It never seemed like enough, it was still all that Sam could say.

“They’re in Elysium now”.

Sam tried not to fidget as he sat, computer still open to the story about Micheal Yew’s body being washed up on a beach. 

“Where does this leave us?”.

“What?”.

“We were both hiding things from each other. I’m a demigod, you were a Hunter of some sort and I’m guessing the scars you have are not from abuse. Where does this leave us?”.

His first instinct was to shout, ‘of course I want to stay together’ because this was Jess. Jess who wove friendship bracelets and swore in ancient greek and hated roses and was so smart it was incredible. Jess who was-

It just felt like his head was spinning. Suddenly he was out the door and running. Jess wasn’t Normal.

Jess was a demigod and the story she had told was disjointed but he believed her. 

He did.

It just didn’t give him any idea where he should stand. He was at Stanford to be normal and have a normal life and-

Where did Jess, demigod Jess, apparently a child of a pagen goddess born from her mother’s brain, fit into that.

He didn’t know.

Jess wasn’t normal but she was his girlfriend and smart and strong and probably even stronger than he had ever guess and-

He was back at the dorms, knocking on a door.

“Sam, what are you doing here”.

“Can I come in”.

“Sure man”.

Brady’s room was a mess as always, Sam tried not to wrinkle his nose at the smell. It wasn’t polite.

He just sat there, staring at the sports poster.

“You gonna talk or just sit there”.

“Have you ever”, Sam started, trying to figure out how to keep it vague, “found out something about someone that you didn’t expect?”.

“Let me guess, this is about Jess?”.

“How’d you know?”.

“You wouldn’t be talking to me otherwise”.

“Point”.

“So what happened man, I thought Jess was like the perfect chick for you and everything”.

“It’s just, I found out something about her and now-”.

“Does it actually matter?”.

“What do you mean?”.

“Look man, what does this actually change?”.

_ Everything. Nothing.  _

“Did you ever even talk to her about this thing?”.

Sam fidgeted. There was an interesting stain on the bed. It looked something like beer. Maybe. It could have been wine as well. Some unholy mix of the two?

Brady sighed. “Talk to her. You can figure it out from there”.

It still felt like he was in a daze as he walked back to their apartment, one moment he was on the path, another he was in a cheap motel, his father saying everything and his brother saying nothing.

He had left. He had left for normal and classes and-

Sam knocked on the door, he had forgotten his key when he had ran out.

It swung open.

“Let’s trade, story for story?”.

Jess smiled, eyes puffy but sharp just like when she was up studying for an exam. “Let's compare notes”.

They talked. 

Jess won the fucked up family award easily, Sam had to give her that one. There was no way his family, fucked up though it was, could beat the incestuest pile up that Jess called the immortal half of her family. 

“So how many of your relatives were related again?”.

“I don’t even want to think about it. Gods don’t have DNA, that's what we all focus on”.

“So like, do demigods date each other?”.

“Yeah. I mean, you wouldn’t date someone with the same godly parent as you”, Jess said with a little shiver, “but anyone else is free game”.

Sam won the fucked up childhood award. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, yes he had been a hunter but no one had told him to defend an entire city against an invading army of monsters with no adults around when he was seventeen years old and he had always had Dean. Even so, he had to admit that Jess’s twelve years of Normality before she found out she was not the product of some random fling did hold weight.

They started to exchange hunting stories, but that mostly made Sam sad, because for Jess they didn’t sound like stories where she was the hunter, mostly it seemed she was hunted.

“Do you still fight?”.

“When I have to, Camp Half-Blood is not like joining the Twelfth Legion, campers come and go. Unless Mom needs me for something or a monster attacks me I’m mostly just a student”.

Sudden fear hit Sam. Images of Jess, hurt and alone grabbed his imagination. “Has that happened?”.

“Has what happened?”.

“Has something attacked you?”.

“Only a few times and nothing I couldn’t patch up for myself”.

“How bad?”. Sam needed to know.

“I gave myself stitches once or twice but-”.

“When? Where?”. How had he missed that? 

“A few weeks ago, they’re out now so not a big deal”.

“Tell me next time”.

“There is a next time? Sam you just told me you want to be Normal. Normal with a capital    
N. You left your family to be Normal. I’m not normal, I can’t give you a white picket fence and three kids. I’m a demigod, my life is school with occasional interruptions from monsters. I’ll never be normal, that's not a choice for me. There’s no walking away, probably no happy ending. You just walked out Sam, and I get it. You have a choice, you’ve given everything to be normal”.

“What would be different?”. That was the crux of it really. The true question

“If anyone calls for my help I go and there might be a demigod kid or two coming through”.

“That's it, I don’t have to go with you?”. There would be no reminders that people were dying and that he needed to start now and-

“You wouldn’t be coming with me”, Jess snapped and Sam could hear how appalled she was at the very idea. “You’re not”, Jess stilled, “you’re not like me. You don’t have to fight the monsters. You’re already so gods damned close. I’m not gonna take that away from you”.

Something stilled in Sam, firm at that declaration. It was okay. He could be Sam the student and not Sam the hunter.

Jess wanted Sam the student. Loved Sam the student. She thought that he had made the right choice in coming to college, she understood that he wanted to be normal. Nobody had ever said that before.

It was okay.

He was okay. 

“Sam?”, Jess sounded impossibly gentle.

“Yeah”.

“You okay?”.

“Why”. Why wouldn’t he be okay?

“You’ve got”, she mimed wiping her face.

“Sorry”, Sam muttered as he tried to rub away the tears.

“Don’t be”.

“Men don’t cry”, Sam realized his mistake when he saw the steel in Jess’s eyes.

“Bullshit. Men can cry if they fucking want to. It's a healthy release of emotions, crying is healthy, talking is healthy, don’t let it be otherwise. Can I hug you now?”.

Sam nodded and felt his girlfriend's arms around him, safe. 

Jess was a demigod, she belonged to a world that Sam had only just learned about, a whole other world of magic and monsters. She was still in his arms, warm and soft and real.

They could make this work.

Sam really hoped they could.

It wasn’t always that easy through.

Sam wanted the signs to be false. Sam wanted to be wrong, he wanted to be wrong so desperately.

It felt like he was underwater, groping blindly for an answer but the answer was there in the clues and the locked door murders.

Jess was out late. Sam fidgited, one eye on the most recent murder, just yesterday and Sam could already hear the voices in his head, yelling at him for doing nothing.

He had been trying to study, had told Jess that he would be late at the library but he just couldn’t focus.

The victims were too loud in his head. They stared at him, accusing, even when he shut the computer.

_ What if the spirit takes Jess next or Becky or Zach or Brady or…  _

Before Sam knew it he was looking for the salt. Suddenly he heard the door open. “Jess?”.

“You’re back already”.

“Yeah, I couldn’t focus and-”. Jess was grimy. Grave dirt grimy. She smelled like smoke and burning salt. “You went hunting?”, and now all Sam could think about was Jess stuck, bleeding and dieing and unable to call for help because she couldn’t carry a phone and-

“It was kind of nice actually”.

“Nice!”, Sam really hoped their neighbors couldn’t hear him.

“Normally I’m what's being hunted, being on the other foot made for a nice change”.

“You’re okay”.

“I’m fine, didn’t even scratch me”.

“Promise?”.

“Yeah. Sam, I’m not that frail. I can take a lot”.

He believed her. She tasted like she smelled, dirt, sweat, and fire. Kissing her was like freedom.

Somehow though, it didn’t help the tension. In some ways it made things worse. Everything boiled up a week later.

Jess had been fidgeting with her baseball bat, sword, even through he hadn’t seen it as a sword since that first night, one day and then he had been asking her to put it away and then somehow it had escalated and-

“I’m not your normality”, Jess shouted at him, “I’m not your chance white picket fence and 2.5 biological children and a dog. I’m Jessica Lee Moore, daughter of Rose Moore and Athena, and I’m never going to be anyone else. But you know what? No one is gonna be your normal. No one”.

It felt like he had been punched. “I’m”, Sam stuttered, “I’m not”.

“Are you? What does ‘normal’ even mean to you Sam, what do you even want out of your life?”. 

“What do you mean what do I want out of my life?”, because Jess knew that. Jess knew what he wanted.

“I mean, what does normal even mean for you! I want you to be happy Sam, but I’m not gonna be anything I’m not. Tell me, in specific words what you want, because you know what? I might not be able to give it to you.”

It felt like one of Dean’s punches. What was worse was that he couldn’t answer. He couldn’t breath.

He wanted to be normal but now he couldn’t think that without Jess’s question echoing, part of a chorus along with that night.

Hands card through his hair rhythmically. Jess is humming something, he can just hear the tune over the ringing in his ears.

“I can’t”, Sam hears himself gasp out, “I can’t”. Because normal was a house but he liked his apartment so was that what he wanted as normal? Was normal two kids or three kids or no kids at all. Normal might be law, but he had seen some of the cases that lawyers did and were they normal?

Normal.

Normal was Dad and Dean and the road. That was normal. But Sam knew that wasn’t Normal.

“I want a life”, Sam gasped out, “one that doesn’t end in the dark in a body bag, halfway to nowhere chasing a ghost that doesn’t exist”.

“Okay”, Jess was saying as she ran soothing circles on his back, “okay, let's work on that”.

They end up eating ice cream together as Jess helps him look through life stories, trying future on for size like a game of play pretend.

It's good.

He also starts to talk to other people. Becky and Zach are actually step siblings, and from the sound of it their family is it's own soap opera.

It's not just Becky and Zach, Marissa is a single child and Victor was adopted and Mary has three parents.

They are all happy.  _ Are they Normal?  _

It was easier before Jess asked him to define Normal.

Maybe not through, somehow, now, it feels like he’s making progress on his goal.

He’s not the only one with problems. One night it’s his turn to yell at Jess.

Jess was studying, notes spread out around her on the floor in a chaotic flurry that Sam knew would somehow make sense to his girlfriend, even if he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. 

“You okay?”.

“Do you think if I went outside now a drakon would kill me? It’d probably be less painful then this”. Sam felt his fist clench, he opened his mouth but- “I mean, it's poison would probably be better than this. Maybe a lastrogian will put me out of my misery tomorrow and none of this studying will even matter. How much do you want to bet a monster will knock me off before-”.

“Stop it”, Sam shouted.

“What?”.

“Stop talking like you're going to die!”.

“Sam, I’m a demigod and-”.

“So. Fight”, and any other time Sam might feel bad for their neighbours but, “Fight okay, because I’m tired of hearing you talk about your death like it's a predestined thing. No one thought I could get out of hunting but I did that. Fight”.

Sam didn’t know what he saw in Jess’s eyes. He didn’t care. He hoped she saw what she needed in his.

Jess sighed. “Guess I’d better study then”.

“You want help?”.

“Sure, get some ice cream?”.

Sometimes through, it's both of them figuring stuff out. They try to have sex once. It's Valentine's day, sex is what couples do.

The cuddling is nice. Everything else not so much. 

They find the word asexual together. The next day they split a pint of Ben and Jerry’s while doing a puzzle.

They both agree it is much more fun.

Asexual isn’t Normal. 

Jess isn’t Normal.

She comes home bloody sometimes, she doesn’t hide it for him anymore. Doesn’t do stitches either. Just eats some sort of godly food that would apparently turn him into cinders and goes to class the next day.

Sam learns a lot of demigod first aid, which is, he realizes, basically just nectar, ambrosial and immobility.

Jess never makes him come with her. She doesn’t hide her swords, though the Mist does and it gives Sam a headache when he tries too hard to look at them, but Jess never makes him come with her.

He meets a demigod kid once and his heart twists. Jess patches the girl up and she doesn’t cry.

She drives the girl to camp and Sam has a pint waiting when she comes back. Somehow that has become part of their Normal. Ice creaming and so much talking that Sam thinks Dean would call them a Soap Opera.

“Do you want kids?”.

“Not biological. Any kid I had would be a legacy like Claudia and I can’t do that. Is that part of your normal?”.

Something in Sam always warms when Jess says that. “You’re normal”. It's such a small phrase but it's support and back up and-

_ Jess asked you a question, pay attention!  _ “I wouldn’t mind adopting”. He adds that to the picture in his head as well. Him and Jess, a steady home. A child. “I’d want more than one though”, Sam admitted. “I can’t imagine being an only kid”.

That's a lie. He can. Being an only kid is walking out the door on the only life he’d ever known, his brother silent as his father told him to get out.

Being an only child is suddenly being alone in a world that feels so much less safe without his family, even though they were tearing him apart. 

He doesn’t say that through.

He is pretty sure that Jess’s figures it out anyways. She’s smart like that.

The dreams of Jess burning on the ceiling started and he hated them. It makes sense, maybe.

They’ve made it so far and he’s taken the LSAT and his normal, what he and Jess have been working on is looking closer and closer. They have a normal of ice cream and trivia and friends and study.

It's not what he imagined at fifteen.

Sam at fifteen had no idea what he wanted.

Sam of now though, what he wants is getting closer and closer and even if he can’t have everything, can’t have a normal with his father and brother things are working out.

But the life that is more than just a dream isn’t the only thing that's close. 

November second is as well.

“Tell me what’s wrong”, Jess asked, steel in her tone, “tell me Sam”.

He does. It helps a little. 

Jess hovers more and he does as well but he’s mortal. Jess is the one who dreams of the past sometimes, who wakes up with the names of ghosts on her lips.

That’s Jess.

They skip the Halloween party. Becky laughs at them but doesn’t make a salsious gesture, just says to have fun studying.

That's another nice thing about their normal. They have friends who get that they’re ace and have changed their jokes to support it.

They have a normal and a home and sometimes Sam can’t believe how lucky he is, even if some nights he looks at his phone and wishes it would just ring.

He could call. He knows that.

He doesn't. John was the one who made the ultimatum and Dean was the one who didn’t say a word.

Sam thinks it's fair to leave the burden of reconnecting on them, that was, if they wanted to.

He’s happy. 

Sam puts the phone down and goes to snuggle with his girlfriend in their bed.

Then his brother shows up.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any inconsistencies in Supernatural, I'm not super familiar with the fandom (I was just attacked by the plot bunny)


End file.
